Tech Shares May Boost Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had dropped more than 630 points or 2.9 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 22,610-point plateau although it's likely to find support again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside, fueled by support from the technology companies. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the plastics companies and mixed performances from the finance and technology sectors.

For the day, the index dropped 91.17 points or 0.40 percent to finish at 22,611.39 after trading between 22,418.38 and 22,691.32.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial fell 0.44 percent, while Mega Financial skidded 1.15 percent, CTBC Financial collected 0.86 percent, First Financial slid 0.37 percent, Fubon Financial rose 0.33 percent, E Sun Financial shed 0.53 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.50 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation lost 0.57 percent, Hon Hai Precision tumbled 1.77 percent, Largan Precision surrendered 1.98 percent, Catcher Technology gained 0.63 percent, MediaTek plunged 2.00 percent, Delta Electronics rallied 2.55 percent, Novatek Microelectronics eased 0.20 percent, Formosa Plastics plummeted 2.68 percent, Nan Ya Plastics stumbled 1.76 percent and Asia Cement was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened mixed but quickly moved up into positive territory and stayed that way.

The Dow jumped 126.13 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 42,080.37, while the NASDAQ rallied 259.01 points or 1.45 percent to end at 18,182.92 and the S&P 500 advanced 55.19 points or 0.97 percent to close at 5,751.13.

The strength on Wall Street came as traders went shopping for bargains, especially among the technology companies.

In economic news, the U.S. trade deficit narrowed to $70.4 billion in August 2024, the lowest in five months, from an upwardly revised $78.9 billion in July. Exports increased 2 percent to a record high of $271.8 billion, while imports dropped 0.9 percent to $342.2 billion.

Data on U.S. consumer price and producer price inflation are due later in the week.

Oil prices tumbled Tuesday as supply disruptions concerns eased a bit on reports Israel is unlikely to attack Iranian oil facilities. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November sank $3.57 or 4.63 percent at $73.57 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will release September numbers for consumer prices later today; in August, overall inflation rose 0.4 percent on month and 2.36 percent on year.